Brighter Thinking
Hints and tips
FOR Teaching
Poetry
Written by Trevor Millum,
on behalf of Cambridge
University Press
About the author:
Trevor Millum is well known for his work on creativity,
poetry and the use of ICT. He has published many
teaching resources, and is the creator of and poet
in residence at Teachit’s Poetry Place, where he has
written over 150 Teaching resources.
Start early
This is no help if you are now starting for the first time with a Year 10 class. However, if you also teach Years 7,
8 or 9 make sure you spend time with poetry. This does not mean a half term ‘doing poetry’. It means sharing
poems with students regularly. Don’t do the same thing each time you present a poem. Sometimes you will
just read it aloud. Other times you’ll ask what they think and have a bit of a discussion. Sometimes you will go
in for a bit of a deeper investigation. And sometimes you will use it as a stimulus for their writing or another
creative activity. (I recall a Y6 teacher who read Ode to Autumn with her pupils, took them for a walk under
some trees and then set them free to write – with results which amazed her. The two experiences together
worked a kind of magic with a very mixed class in the middle of Scunthorpe.)
Be gentle
Even if you can’t start early, start gently. Mix in some readings of poems you like and that you think they will
like with ones from the GCSE list. Don’t present them with the whole batch all in one go. Introduce them to
half a dozen ‘set’ poems over a short period of time without asking them to do much more than comment on
them, perhaps picking out a line or phrase they like. You can come back to the poems in more detail a little
later and they will feel a little bit familiar.
Be varied
Introduce poems in different ways. For example:
4Read the poem aloud dramatically in two or
more different ways.
4Record the poem with music in the background
and play it to the class.
4Choose pictures to accompany the poem and
show it as a PowerPoint presentation.
4Immerse the poem in prose.
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
4Collapse the poem into its constituent words.
4Remove the line endings so that it looks like prose.
4Display it on the wall with lots of key words missing.
They won’t be able to resist wondering what is in
the blank spaces.
4Display the poem with annotations – but not the
boring kind. For example:
Are clouds lonely?
Not the ones I’ve seen recently.
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
A crowd of daffodils?
Not a very attractive description!
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
OK, that’s better.
Be honest
Well, up to a point. Admit that such and such a poem doesn’t appeal to you, that you find a particular line difficult
or not very good (and explain why). Point out that poets aren’t perfect and that even the greats wrote some
dreadful stuff. The poems in the set list will probably contain one or two which, in your professional judgement,
you don’t rate very highly. See how your students react to them before damning them, though – no point in putting
them off before they start. However, if they – or some of them – seem to find a poem difficult or simply not very
good, it can be reassuring to share your feelings. And then do your best to see what is interesting about it.
www.cambridge.org/ukschools
Personal response
The word ‘interesting’ is a key one. They don’t have to like everything whether it’s a poem or a play or a story.
But they can learn to see what’s interesting about it and what others might see in it. The theme of films or
television programmes can be the starting point for a discussion. How do we get beyond saying that such and
such a film is rubbish? That’s hopeless. Why is that film, that song, or that programme rubbish – or really really
good? Personal response is valued in GCSE answers but gut reaction without justification isn’t.
Ask Why?
Why? This question has to be the follow up to any expression of liking or disliking. I dislike it because it’s boring is
not a helpful analysis. Why do you find it boring / what is it about it that makes it boring (to you)?
Ask them to compare a disliked poem with a poem they have liked; where does the difference lie?
Most students have enjoyed poems like The Highwayman or The Listeners or Jabberwocky in the past, for
example. What did those have that the poem under discussion does not? Perhaps this poem lacks action.
Perhaps it lacks structure, especially rhythm. The poems cited have both. Poems set at GCSE are often more
reflective and descriptive than ones encountered earlier in school. This is worth discussing. Are we growing
up? Are we becoming more thoughtful, wanting more than a simple story? (Maybe not, but some students
will recognise that poems with a questioning, reflective stance may echo the way that they have become
more reflective themselves.)
Cambridge University Press UK Schools Poetry resources
Our GCSE Poetry resources deliver a fresh approach to teaching
poetry, building students’ skills and confidence in reading and
responding to poems. Written by authors with unparalleled
experience, our resources cover all aspects of poetry in the new
AQA 2015 GCSE English Literature exam. The Cambridge
Elevate-enhanced Edition features audio recordings bringing
poetry to life and video tasks for creative responses to poems.
Titles in our Poetry series includes:
4GCSE English Literature for AQA Poetry Student Book with
Cambridge Elevate-enhanced Edition, 9781107454682
4GCSE English Literature for AQA Poetry Student Book
Cambridge Elevate-enhanced Edition, 9781107454729
4GCSE English Literature for AQA Poetry Student Book,
9781107454712
4GCSE English Literature for AQA FREE Teacher’s Resource
Online, 9781107455467
4GCSE English Literature for AQA FREE Teacher’s Resource
Cambridge Elevate-enhanced Edition, 9781107455436
For information on our Poetry resources and support
for teachers please contact us:
www.cambridge.org/ukschools
[email protected]
01223 325 588
@CUPUKschools
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